Holding the record for career Academy Awards nominations (sixty-four), as well as having thirty-two personal Academy Awards, seven Emmys, and, along with his staff, more than 950 honors and citations from every nation in the world, Walt Disney is widely regarded as one of the most brilliant and imaginative men of the 20th century.

          Walter Elias Disney was born in Chicago, Illinois, on December 5, 1901. His parents, Elias Disney and Flora Call Disney, moved him, his three brothers, and his sister to Marceline, Missouri. Disney would spend his childhood there, cultivating his love of art. At the age of seven, he would sell artwork to his neighbors for spending money. At sixteen he went to enlist in the army. Being underage, he was rejected, but served as an ambulance driver in France, his ambulance covered in cartoons and sketches. When he returned, he went to Kansas City to begin a career as an advertising cartoonist. In 1920, he created his first animated cartoons, and perfected a new method that combined animation with live action.

          In August of 1923, Disney left Kansas City. With $40 in his pocket, a few drawing materials, and a completed animated and live-action film, Disney headed for Hollywood. His brother, Roy O. Disney, was already in California. Together, they made a camera stand in their uncle's garage, and soon an order came in from New York for the first "Alice Comedy." The two brothers began to use the rear of a Hollywood real estate office several blocks away for their productions. On July 13, 1925, Disney married Lillian Bounds, one of his first employees, in Lewiston, Idaho. They had two daughters, Sharon and Diane.

          Mickey Mouse was created in 1928 for the silent film Plane Crazy. That same year he starred in Steamboat Willie, with Disney’s own voice for Mickey. The short film gained instant fame and initiated the concept of making a separate cartoon for each animated movement. It was Disney’s first film using sound- in fact, it was the world’s first fully synchronized sound cartoon. In 1938, Disney produced his first feature-length cartoon, which took three years to complete: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The production cost an unprecedented $1,499,000, during the Depression, and earned Disney an Oscar- with seven miniatures of the statue to go with it.

          In the five years following Snow White, Disney produced other full-length films such as Fantasia, Dumbo, Pinocchio, and Bambi. In 1945, Disney produced the musical The Three Caballeros, which used animation and live action. He used this technique in Mary Poppins, as well as Songs of the South and other features. In his lifetime, Disney’s studio released 81 films.

Disneyland, located in Anaheim, California, was launched in 1955 and would entertain hundreds of millions of people- including kings, queens, other royalty, and presidents from across the world. And later, entirely in secret, Disney directed the purchase of 43 square miles of land in Florida. Twice the size of Manhattan Island, this would be the home of several theme parks, resorts, and more.

          In 1966, Disney was diagnosed with smoking-related lung cancer. He passed away on December 15, days after he turned 65. A popular urban legend states that he was cryogenically frozen under Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean ride. In reality, he was cremated and laid to rest at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. His brother Roy O. Disney took over the company, insisting that the Florida project be renamed Walt Disney World in his brother’s honor. After his death due to a stroke at the age of 78, in December, 1971, a statue of him seated on a park bench beside Minnie Mouse was placed in Town Square at the Magic Kingdom.

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